Classes - making it fun for toddlers

As a parent with a young toddler, I knew at some point my son would start to find educational learning to be fun. At around 18 months onwards and towards two, he would be wanting to learn letters and words. I didn't realise how much until he started wanting to learn for about an hour to two hours a day.

Things I did to encourage learning of words, shapes and people and how to make it fun.

Classroom
In the study I set up a little classroom. His dad works in here as well, so I think my son thought he was just as important being in there with him. Luckily we don't disturb his dad when we are doing 'classes'. I have a little table and a craft box with puzzles, learning blocks, pencil case with crayons/colored pencils/thick-width pencils to draw with. He also has a box of magnetic letters and magnetic board.

Activities
I make it fun, sometimes he will go into his classroom and start playing with his letters (which I leave out on the floor - self imposed classes which give me a chance to have a nice cup of tea). I also have stuck up on the wall an ABC and Numbers chart. A friend of mine mentioned that she did this and her son was trying very successfully to learn the letters and use magnetic letters to try and make words. I found this amazing and thought wow both boys aren't even two yet and I can introduce my son, what a great idea and so I thought why not make it like a class. Codi seemed to lap up all this educational stuff and he found it very stimulating and extremely fun. I found that he was proactive to do 'drawing time' and 'classes' with me, his dad or by himself.

One-on-one
Codi loves drawing. I discovered he loves trees, stars. I expanded drawing all the shapes, people and objects like cars and things Codi would find interesting, like balloon and flower and try and show him these things when out and a about. The excitng thing is that it reminds me of trying to teach someone a new language. Just because they can't speak english you can still communicate via body language, association, demonstration and repetition. One-on-one activities I think for me really helped Codi try and communicate other things he wanted me to draw.

He loves looking up on the wall and saying the names of the pictures I have drawn for him. It is very exciting to hear him point to a drawing of mumma with long hair and say mumma. I had oringally, shown him my hair and pointed to the picture I drew of myself. I also did this with other family members. It was a great idea by his poppa to expand from shapes, animals, objects to family members. He now points at representations of poppa, uncle jimmy, lola, nanna and of course daddie!!!

Activities I do with him...

• I draw a shape, tell him what it is and I color it in and stick it up on the wall. (loves to watch me how I color in)
• I draw a shape (a tree) and he colors it in himself and I praise him even if he goes outside of the lines (sometimes he trys to draw the shape as he trys to color on the lines, an observation by his dad)
• I hold his hand and help him draw a circle or tree.
• Color in books together.
• Let him explore different writing tools, pen, pencil, texta (under supervision or you will have very colorful walls) and use crayons, thick width pencils and normal colored pencils (all under supervision)
• I am slowly progressing to glu and glitter but for Codi a little more patience is required (I think I will leave it till after two). He does do some craft (glu and glitter) at daycare.

Fun..
I have a fun activity where I do sounds like a playschool teacher trying to rap each letter and he repeats it back to me like a game...p...ppee..ppee...ppe, ooo oo o, ggg..g.g. and also try and sing each letter of the alphabet and rhyme a story, c is for codi who likes to play, a is for apple he eat all day and so on... (boy I have a deeper respect for real teachers!!!). It is funny to see Codi jiggin around, bopin up and down to my made up songs and I get warm fuzzies that he is learning at the same time.

The results are very exciting for me and I am sure for Codi. So my advice is that they are never to young to start, your creative side will emerge and your toddler will find it fun being a sponge, learning from you.